A fantastic launch for Dynamite’s Shadow relaunch snags them the number one spot for indie books this month, while Walking Dead just pips Saga to the second spot, by less than 50 copies. A little further down Fanboys vs Zombies, Star Wars Boba Fett is Dead and America’s Got Powers get off to very strong starts.

We had a very interesting comments section last month, with Ed Brubaker and Brian Wood amongst others commenting that the figures reported here are quite far below what the actual sales are. The general consensus seems to be that actual sales are at least 10-20% higher than reported, which makes sense when you account for reorders and foreign sales. I considered adding a percentage to the figures here, but I think that’s likely to make these already estimated figures utterly meaningless, so I’ll stick with the ICv2 figures for the moment. However, if a creator or publisher would like to contribute completed figures, I’m happy to consider including them, as I’m doing with Fatale #1 this month.

143 indie books charted this month, 10 up on last month. The bottom book sold 3,477, only 200 up on last month. In total those books sold approximately 1,338,413, almost 200,000 more than last month’s 1,153,980. Average sales are 9,360 per book, up on last month’s 8,677. As usual, UK and European sales from Diamond UK are not reported in this chart.

Out of the 143 books, 31 went up in sales, which is quite a lot, just over 20% of all books, and 79 went down, with the rest made up of one-shots and debuts. Compare that to DC, who had 10 books go up, and 64 go down out of 82 books. Marvel do a lot better, but they do have a lot of books increasing due to the Avengers vs X-Men crossovers, 24 out of 75, with 40 going down.

This month Image keep the top indie publisher spot by quite some margin, with 8.60% dollar share and a 6.61 market share, followed by Dark Horse with 5.37% dollar share and 4.64% market share, IDW with a 4.22% dollar share and a 3.40% market share, Dynamite with a 3.89% dollar share and a 3.90% market share and Boom with 1.67% dollar share and 1.92% market share.

Thanks to icv2.com and Milton Griepp for permission to use these numbers, which are estimates, and can be found here.

31. The Shadow (Dynamite)
04/2012: The Shadow #1 - 45,548

An astonishing debut for the relaunch, and I suspect these are Garth Ennis’ best sales since his Punisher days. I’m sure it’ll drop off massively next month, but I’d imagine Dynamite are very pleased with these sales.

A large increase as the big 100 approaches, while in the graphic novel charts, seven of the top ten are Walking Dead trades, including the top 3 which are volumes one, two and three respectively, and all 15 are in the top twenty. In fact only the fourth hardcover doesn’t chart. Amazing.

What a difference a few months can make. None of the Star Wars line was selling over 15,000 copies at the beginning of the year, but a couple of good launches have pushed up sales, with this being their best Star Wars launch in a few years.

Well this seems to have found its level pretty damn fast. Brian Wood also made an appearance in the comment thread last month, and apparently the first issue has now sold almost thirty thousand copies. It could be doing even better, but I’m hearing that a lot of people who would normally pick up a Wood/ Cloonan book won’t touch it because it’s Conan. Their loss.

Another phenomenal month for the surprise hit, now Boom’s biggest seller. The second issue charts again with another 8,864 sold. The first issue appears to be between printings or I suspect it would have reappeared as well this month.

Sales scoot back up to where they were a few months ago, possibly it’s receiving a little reflected sales from Walking Dead.

132. Supreme (Image)
04/2012: Supreme #63 - 14,062

Another of Rob Liefield’s relaunches, this time with Erik Larsen adapting Alan Moore’s final un-produced script from when he wrote it in the nineties. That’s probably about where I’d expect it to sell. It will likely drop down a bit when Larsen goes solo next month.

I have the idea that these figures are amongst the least representative of how well this book is doing. The reprints of the early issues aren’t quite selling enough to chart, and I think we’re likely to see a rise in reported sales over the next few months.

137. Star Wars Knights Of The Old Republic (Dark Horse)
01/2012: Knights Of The Old Republic War #1 - 16,179
02/2012: Knights Of The Old Republic War #2 - 13,318 (-17.7%)
03/2012: Knights Of The Old Republic War #3 - 13,045 (-2.1%)
04/2012: Knights Of The Old Republic War #4 - 13,171 (-1.0%)

139. Star Wars Dark Times (Dark Horse)
08/2011: Dark Times Out of The Wilderness #1 - 18,548 (+15.6%)
09/2011: Dark Times Out of The Wilderness #2 - 14,870 (-19.8%)
10/2011: -
11/2011: Dark Times Out of The Wilderness #3 - 13,651 (-8.2%)
12/2011-01/2012: -
02/2012: Dark Times Out of The Wilderness #4 - 13,046 (-4.4%)
03/2012: -
04/2012: Dark Times Out of The Wilderness #5 - 12,997 (-0.4%)

I sort of hope that BPRD doesn’t continue this two series simultaneously thing, as it’s a pig to format the chart. Lobster Johnson gets a big jump this month for no apparent reason, to bring it alongside the two BPRD books saleswise.

Following in the footsteps of the original Danger Girl series, by taking a year to release 5 issues, but sales really suffered as a result, losing more between its fourth and fifth issues, than between first and second.

The 30 Days of Night tie-in sells a good amount more than the regular series, if below the other tie-ins, as the crossover ends for this year. It’s probably done well enough to get another one next year.

Dropping back to where it was before issue one hundred, it’s astonishing how far this book has fallen. I can’t think of any other book that’s been continually published that has shrunk in sales so much. This book was selling over a hundred thousand copies when it launched, iirc.

Slightly disappointing sales, but Oni books don’t tend to get the support they used to, Scott Pilgrim aside. It’ll have further life in collected form though, and Oni seem to be able to support lower sales, if the under-rated Sixth Gun is any indicator.

272. Exile on the Planet of the Apes (Boom!)
11/2011: Betrayal of the Planet of the Apes #1 - 6,850
12/2011: Betrayal of the Planet of the Apes #2 - 5,473 (-20.1%)
01/2012: Betrayal of the Planet of the Apes #3 - 4,926 (-10.0%)
02/2012: Betrayal of the Planet of the Apes #4 - 4,732 (-3.9%)
03/2012: Exile on the Planet of The Apes #1 - 5,474 (+15.7%)
04/2012: Exile on the Planet of The Apes #2 - 4,751 (-13.2%)

Dropping back to where it was when the last series ended, which is actually a pretty good second issue drop.

All figures on this chart are estimates for comics sold by Diamond to direct market retailers. They include reorders that shipped in the same month. Books shipping in the first week of a month will have more time for reorders to appear than ones shipping in the last week of the month, when reorders will slip to the following month.

Heidi MacDonald is the founder and editor in chief of The Beat. In the past, she worked for Disney, DC Comics, Fox and Publishers Weekly. She can be heard regularly on the More To Come Podcast. She likes coffee, cats and noble struggle.

I really hope The BIONIC MAN will get a bump in sales when the “Bigfoot” arc starts up with issue #11. I’m really going to miss Jonathan Lau because his artwork is made of awesome! But I’m looking forward to seeing what the new artist Ed Tadeo brings to the book. And what Phil Hester’s new writing partner Aaron Gillespie has to offer us. The Bionic Man #9 was pretty darn exciting so I’m looking forward to the conclusion of Kevin Smith’s storyline with issue #10 this month. I just hope losing Kevin Smith’s name from the book isn’t going to hurt sales. Phil Hester is rocking this book!

Re: “The Darkness”: “I can’t think of any other book that’s been continually published that has shrunk in sales so much.”

Erm… “Spawn” comes to mind. “Archie” has probably declined just as much from its height 4-5 decades ago. And that’s just indie comics. Compare any of the Big Two’s biggest franchises to what they sold in decades past.

Goon had a bump with issue 39 because it was the *friggin’ hilarious* satire issue mocking mainstream comics. The cover to it was loud, funny, large and in charge of whatever end of the rack it was placed in LCSs.

It doesn’t pull punches with its mockery. Check it out if you haven’t.

Yes Goon 39! That book is fantastic have not laughed out loud that many times reading a comic….ever.
Also Shadow is everything you could hope for, Ennis is really at his best. Sometimes he can get outrageous for what seems like shock value however he is taking a great measured approach for Shadow it really is a treat.

I’m sad whenever The Sixth Gun doesn’t chart. I just discovered it with issue #21 (the silent issue) but it’s a new favorite. An old west story with magic guns that bond to their users for life and filled with fascinating and horrific characters? What’s not to love?

@ Chris R … Kevin Smith created a good villian with the Hull for the Bionic Man. I’ve liked Lau’s art for the most part but I wish his version of Steve Austin resembled Lee Majors a little more, lol. Secret of the Bigfoot was one of my favorite Six Million Dollar Man eppys so I can’t wait for the bigfoot stuff! Between Highlander and Bionic Man I’m pleased with Dynamite. I want to see a crossover with Steve/Jaime and Connor/Heather.

The Sixth Gun and Courtney Crumrin are two excellent books and it breaks my heart they are not selling more.

Image was good to build the hype for their creator driven books.

Mind you, the books are great and deserve those sales and more. However I’m fairly sure a significant portion of such sales are hype driven. I suspect that iFanboy alone moves thousands of units for Image (not a criticism – kudos to them).

I’m not complaining, I just wish that the hype would stick to all worthwhile comics, not only to a specific brand.